THE JOHN BONSIGNOR INTERVIEW (Part 3) Broadcasting, Paris, the Philippines, and Betty Sue Bonsignor

The John Bonsignor Interview (Part 3)

Broadcasting, Paris, the Philippines, and Betty Sue Bonsignor

In Part 3 of our ongoing series, we explore the most personal chapter yet in the life of John Bonsignor — the early experiences that shaped the broadcaster, public figure, and storyteller behind the microphone.

Before Big Talk and Talking Politics, Bonsignor’s journey began in New York City, where he worked in radio at WOR Radio. His path then took him far from home — serving in the Philippines during his military years and later spending time in Paris, France, experiences that broadened his perspective and helped shape the voice he would later bring to the airwaves.

After returning home to New York, Bonsignor entered a new chapter of service as a New York City police officer. And it was during this time — just after coming back home — that a chance encounter would change his life.

While on duty, he stopped a young woman for jaywalking.

That woman was Betty Sue, from Salisbury, North Carolina.

What could have been a routine ticket became something entirely different. A conversation turned into lunch… and lunch turned into a lifelong partnership. It’s a story that perfectly captures the unexpected nature of life — and the idea that opposites truly do attract. A New York City policeman and broadcaster with a love of opera meets a Southern woman who didn’t quite share that passion — and yet, it worked beautifully.

In this episode, Bonsignor shares:

• His early broadcasting days in New York
 • His experiences in the Philippines and Paris
 • His transition into police work after returning home
 • The unforgettable story of meeting Betty Sue
 • Warm and often humorous family stories from their life together

Part 3 offers something deeper — the human story behind the public life.

Before the career…
 before the cameras…
 there was a young man returning home, finding his footing — and unexpectedly finding the person who would share the rest of his life.

Theme song is  Produced by Danya Vodovoz, link to my song   https://youtu.be/NRxduUMZcdw 

Transcript

John Bonsignor Interview 1 , Broadcasting

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Now you you did some broadcasting too. This talking politics much on the broadcast. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Broadcasting. Oh my gracious. I used to um when I was uh high school getting out of high school uh I did a show uh with uh big John Nebel on WOR radio in New York. But prior to that, when I was going to high school, Lafayette High School, I uh finagled myself in working as a janitor at the Brooklyn Broadcasting Company. And I was um you know emptying trash cans and dusting and going for coffee, um telling the uh announcers how great they were, etc., what they wanted to hear. And oftentimes uh the management there would let me go on the air. I had experience uh with radio prior to that, but this is when I was going to high school. So I used to go to 66 uh 66 uh Court Street up on the uh ninth floor. They'd have a studio there, Brooklyn uh Brooklyn Broadcast.

John Bonsignor interview 1

SPEAKER_01 1:44

So that carried me over when I was in the Philippines uh in 1950, 51, 2, 3. I did a broadcast. Uh I uh met Hal Hal Bowie, B-O-W-I-E, and he was an American, and he was the uh station manager for two big stations in Manila. One was W W um no, not W D Z D D D Z M B and D Z R H. So I was on D Z M B, and I did the shuffling sand man from nine to midnight. The witching hour. And uh I had a friend of mine whose name was Judson Ross Dix, and I used to call him the Poet Laureate of North Carolina. He was a teacher at Clark Air Force, but a civilian teacher uh helping uh teach the young kids of uh servicemen, officers, uh enlisted men, and he taught them English. And then he was a rich friend of mine, and he was a poet. So I had him on the radio. He came in with a couple of students, and he came in to the studio uh at the Yellow Zali building, and uh so he said, Do you want to say anything? Uh how how about you reciting uh some um poetry? And I remember one the first line says, I'm so tired of call me. He had a draw worse than yours. Call me to see you, Johnny. And so he wrote a book, Poems of the Philippines, and he had it published, and today it's in the Library of Congress. No way. Yeah, mm-hmm. The Library of Congress. And at the acknowledgments, he says that he was on my uh with me and DZMB reading these poems that was in uh poems of the Philippines. So wow. You know, you never know. I don't know how I can I I can go on and give you other stories, uh, but I don't know how how long we have. As long as you as long as you want to talk.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

We've got as I can. Come on, the people people must be

Discussing the Philippines

SPEAKER_00 4:11

no one ever falls asleep on each other.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Come on, you know. There's a couple, there's a couple, there's a couple.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Because you were there you were there during the Korean War, so you were broadcasting out of the during the wartime.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

I I can give another story. Uh Alazali was a composer. No, no, excuse me, he was a conductor of the Philippine Symphony Orchestra. And uh one year one year, I think in 1952, uh the orchestra had Helen Travel from the Metropolitan Opera. She was a Wagnerian soprano, and uh he had her as a guest singer with his orchestra. And guess who sang the Star Spangled Banner? Well, don't point to people who can't see you. But you did, I guess. That's it. I did. I sang it. That's hard to understand. Yeah, Helen is a it was a great, nice, beautiful woman. Great voice. I only I always admired her. I'm sitting I'm sitting there listening to her, and I said, I d I wonder how I sounded to her. Because I didn't get to see her after after the performance because they went out to uh have a party or so and I would of course I had to go back to the Air Force Base. It it was back in um I think it was on a f Saturday or so, so I had to get back there. I couldn't stay too long. I did my show naturally uh there uh but I had to get but I it was limited because the bus uh the last bus left about one or so uh about to uh to Papan uh Pampanga, Clark Air Force Base. And at that time they had the communist hawks. They were patrolling the the um roads and they would stop a lot of buses and steal and shoot and all that stuff. But they didn't stop our bus, uh the the military bus, uh the Air Force Base.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

They probably didn't tangle with you, I would think.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Well, I was in the 13th, uh was uh was the 13th Air Force. Uh uh who was the uh let me see if I can remember. Wheeler, yeah, Brigadier General Wheeler was our base commander. He was a nice guy, really, a wonderful guy. He's a well-known general, right? General Wheeler uh was a um was one of the outstanding generals uh in the Air Force. And at that time, when I was in the Air Force, and the Air Force was just beginning, it's starting with in 1954, 50. They they changed from the United States Army Air Force to the U.S. Air Force. It was done by Truman, I believe. So we were we're all on the bottom step, the basic steps. So uh was that about to be in the ground floor of the beginning of the Air Force? Yeah, that was the ground floor, that's correct. That was uh Harry Truman did that. I believe that. Uh somebody may say, No, it wasn't Harry Truman.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Who wants to tell me I don't remember? So what was that like? What do you mean so you were right there, you're you're not gonna go?

SPEAKER_01 7:16

I was on the I was on, I was OJT, uh uh it's on the job training. That was my MOS, I so I was training uh mostly uh air police, uh I was training uh people for security and the like. And I also had a class. I was um they allowed me to instruct the uh Judson, in fact, got me the job. Uh uh they didn't they they watched over me, of course. I had uh the young uh students, it's from Judson, I I taught them uh how to sing. I I gave them uh singing lessons. And also while I was there, I took up um U.S. Constitution and History with Major Thompson at the Air Force Base. Uh United States Air Force uh uh inform uh uh what was it? USAF it used to be called. Information agency or it was a part of the University of uh Southern California. They gave him the curriculum uh to teach, and Thompson would teach it at one of the barracks that we had on uh the Air Force base. So I took a couple courses and also I came up with a very bad disease. I was there. I had cellulitis without lymphantitis. And then they brought me to I had to go to the hospital and stay there for over seven days. Oh wow and I had to be injected to all kinds of uh uh anti uh inflammatory drugs and so forth. And it wasn't very good. I couldn't walk. It gets beat red, like like a beat. Oh no. Like a beat. And you can't walk at all. So you don't have to stay in bed for seven days with your leg ray. Was it something unique to the Philippines or was that just uh Well, I got it from the Philippines. It's so uh hot. Uh I used to wear a sun helmet in the Philippines. That's how hot it was. It was very, very, very hot. Uh you're talking temperatures here at 110, over there was 115, 120. Oh wow. And sometimes I had to go out into the field. And right uh adjacent to our base was the uh village, the negrito village of the Filipinos and the gritos. They were the um early settlers of the Philippines. The little black um tribesmen that they had uh their their uh I guess you would call it their huts or their their living right near us. And they were nice people. Oh, what beautiful people they were. And so that was it. And then of course uh you had to um endure some of the problems that were there. It was raining when it was had the months was raining, and it all wet and it's hot and it's raining, and you're wearing these boots, and you're marching, you're walking, instructing, and you're going left, right, right, left.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

So were you in the military police there? Was that your main duty or was it the problem?

SPEAKER_01 10:30

Well, it was the security, it was security. Um then it became uh then they changed the whole thing when I left. I I left from the Philippines, I went to Oxnard Air Force Base in uh California. Okay. And then from California, I served there for a couple of years, and then went on the radio, in fact, in Ventura County. They have a radio station. Uh the Levin Levin County of uh of California. Really? That was Ventura County. So I worked there. I was also in the Air Force, so uh I I uh did a lot of things and some airmen, uh superiors, uh like uh I uh like staff sergeants, uh no like lieutenants and and captains. Uh they didn't like me too much because I was uh I was too popular. And that's true, I was very popular. Not that I wanted to be cop popular. I don't I don't like to uh be uh aggressive or sh being a show off. Uh I like to sit in the background, but I couldn't e escape them hating me. I remember one l first lieutenant and I we were we were playing football together and I blocked him, I put him on his backside. Woo! Did I get it? I I said, uh well, I don't know those answers. So I said, Listen, go down over there. I said, Be nice, be nice, be nice. They yell at you. I I mean what kind of nonsense. They want to play football, you knock them on their backside, uh and and then they they they get y uh embarrassed and they come after you and then they know they hear you on the radio. They have a a a radio on the uh air force base, but you're not you're not broadcasting from the uh from the airport, but you're in in the middle of broadcasting to all of the people in in in in in the surrounding areas. Uh it goes to the m uh Malakanyan uh uh the Presidential Cat Palace and it went to all of the uh people on Dewey Boulevard and Dewey h hotels, uh all the restaurants. One of my favorite uh restaurants was an Indonesian restaurant. And the woman just adored me, loved me. And uh she used to give me free Indonesian food. Very spicy, very sweet, and very nice, and her husband, oh she m she made a fuss over me and I had you don't have to be very careful.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

You get jealous, don't you?

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Yeah, you can't blame him. I and I don't you know, me, I don't look to flirt. When you slot when you slot look and listen to him, why? Do you think I flirt?

SPEAKER_00 13:19

No, no, I I would imagine you would be good at it. Don't say that. You know who's listening, don't you? I'm trying to be on my best behavior.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

I'm 65 years married. Sixty-five years married, and I don't want to get in any trouble with my own wife. Were you married when you were there in California? No, no, no, I wasn't married then. No, I went

Discussing Paris, France

SPEAKER_01 13:38

from getting uh getting a muster out of the Air Force, and I went with my friend to Milwaukee and from Milwaukee and went to Paris, France. Paris, France, I was living with some a girl that was uh in uh Pigali, one of the dances, Pigali. You know, ever been to Pigali? I have not.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

But I did not know you lived in Paris. What was that? I mean that was bit of a Paris was nice.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

It was a very nice, uh very nice time. I mean, I was just there on one day and I met someone, and uh that she and I were very good friends, and she insisted I don't pay for a hotel room to come live in her apartment, which I did. I accepted. I didn't do anything new or naughty naturally. So we would live together until I got a call from Mama. I said, Johnny, you gotta come home. But mother, I'm I'm here. I I I want you gotta come home. Grandma wants you home. I said, Oh God, no, please. So I had to go home. Well, did you there's anything mem memorable stories about Paris? Paris at that time, you gotta remember, they uh they just had uh was occupied by the Germans uh some couple of years. So they were just getting over that. They loved the Americans at that time. Uh that's why this girl picked me up. I didn't pick her up, she picked me up. They disliked us. So we were nice, and uh, especially me at that time. I was a nice looking guy, I was six one. I weighed 190 pounds. I wasn't like today. I I'm uh 240 pounds. I think I'm getting close to your weight. I'm on with that. And I I used to be six one, but now I shrunk down to about six foot or so. So Well did you get to see much of Europe when you were in Paris? No, no, no, no. I didn't I didn't I didn't have time. Mother my mother called me and told me to come back home. So you came back, said you. Well, yeah, if you get your mother calling you you're gonna say, why are we why are you a man be pamby? Why don't you be a b a man and just stay? You gotta remember the uh the circa. It's back in uh 19 um 54, 55, 55. It's a completely different uh America. It's a completely different paris. No. It's the times are completely different. And you always uh not it's not it's not like today you disrespect disrespect your parents. At that time you had to you had to obey your parents, so otherwise you were looked upon as a so you knew my mother. I I know what it's like to get a call and say you better come back. Yeah, you gotta get, yeah. When she told you to come back, you had to come back. Uh I mean it it sounds uh like uh Nambi Pambi. Uh here I am, a big guy like me, and having a nice time in Paris, but uh you don't have a nice time if your parents tell you to come back. So you had to come back to New York, right? Yes, I had to come back to New York, yes.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

So

Returning to New York and Long Island

SPEAKER_00 16:35

I mean I know Long Island, Long Island. So what was that like when it was the Long Island of the 1950s?

SPEAKER_01 16:40

I know very little about uh Long Island was barren, it was didn't have as much population as it has today. Um maybe they had a hundred and fifty thousand, two hundred thousand people. It wasn't it wasn't that much. Uh it was just um, you know. Uh at the times it was just growing. Uh we didn't have the population that we have now. And that's all the population that grew up when they had the Kennedy uh uh allowed all of the uh immigrants. We opened the doors for the immigration. Ted Kennedy opened the doors for in immigration to the United States and they all poured in. So from a very uh small p uh population, the population grew. So they had to live somewhere. And it's different at that time. They they loved America. When they came in, they loved America. Today they they d you can hear them here, they they want to shoot Americans, they they disrespect America. They they go to football stadiums, they have the um Mexican flags, the Panamanian flags, this flag, that flag. All all type of flags with the American flag. And then you go in the neighborhoods, there's there's there's Arabic all over the walls. I I I don't read Arabic, so I don't know what's on that wall. So so Trump wants to change that. He said, You want to live in America, you want to be in business, you change it to put an English on the wall, not Arabic. Let the uh let the locals, let the American-born people know what you're saying.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

Yeah, come to America, become an American, you know. That's what he said. I agree with him. Tim, you may not remember me us talking about this one time. This has been several years ago. You lived in Long Island. Didn't Hitler, Adolf Hitler, didn't he have some relatives that live there that you either knew them or knew who they were?

SPEAKER_01 18:31

No, he uh Hitler had Hitler had a parade ground with a lot of Austrians and with Wheatley Heights, Long Island, it's in the Bay wine dance. They had a um clubhouse or a restaurant called the Chateau, Chateau Restaurant, and the Bund every Sunday would assemble there and march on the playground, on the campground there. It's a big campground, big marching. They used to march there all the time. So we did have it in Long Island, we did we did have the third reich theory.

Meeting his wife Betty Sue Bonsignor

SPEAKER_00 19:09

Well, tell me, so you so you because I know Mrs. Bonsenius from North Carolina. You were back in Long Island, so y'all met, I imagine, there, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:17

My wife is uh was born in Concord. Okay. And I was born in Brooklyn. So that's a good match, wasn't it? Don't you think it's a good match? She's going, I think you are so nice, Johnny. That's a big reason. I'm so nice that uh when I stopped her to give her a ticket, uh, when I was a policeman, and she was smoking and chaywalking, and I stopped her, and we we got into a nice conversation. I walked her home, and then it was my lunch hour, and I used to go to this uh deli, and we I got a pastrami sandwich for her and a big pickle, and me a pastrami sandwich and a big pickle. And talking uh for my hour off, I said, you know, would you like to go uh to the opera? I love opera, and right there in the Westover, there are a lot of opera singers. So would you like to go? She said, Yeah, okay, okay. I said, Alright, I'll get the tickets, and we'll go on Saturday, because I was off on Saturday. Okay. So I pick her up and we go to the Metropolitan Opera. We park the car and I bring her into this big, big area. Have you ever been to the Metropolitan on 38th Avenue 38th Street in New York City? It's really monstrous. The beautiful everybody's dressed up so nicely. I had a business suit on. She was she dressed so nicely too. She looked so nice. So we had uh a like uh pariocis at the second level. It was like a b uh the balcony. I paid good money for it. I paid about twenty dollars uh for both of us. So uh she she comes here and she's looking, what what is this anyway? What is this? I said, This is the Metropolitan Opera. Well, what's the Metropolitan Opera? What do you mean, what's the Metropolitan Opera? They're gonna be playing very shortly, Aida. Aida, what's that? I said, What do you mean? What what is that? It's an opera. Opera? Oh, wow. I didn't want to go to an opera opera. I wanted to go to Grand Grand Old Opera in Tennessee. That's where I thought you were taking me. Betty, how can I go from New York to Tennessee to take you there? Come on, get wise. So, if you ever put on Aida, you ever listen to it? It's powerful music. And you and anybody sitting in the audience listening to Aida. They're wide awake except Betty Sue Bonzigor. Betty Sue Roseman, excuse me.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

She was going, oh, Betty, Betty Shh. So she fell asleep, Bill Opera.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

And here they here they uh are screaming away, Tom Tom, dum, and the whole art browerful, real powerful. Every instrument on stage was blowing away. Except Betty Sue, she was blowing away. She was blowing her also, she's blowing uh snores. She was blowing sounds. She was snoring, she was snoring, they were singing.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

Well, so the first date went well, it sounds like.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

Yeah, but uh uh no, it didn't go away because I I didn't like that. Uh I I I didn't like taking a date that didn't enjoy themselves and let me think that they they were gonna they liked uh going to the opera only because they felt that uh you know I was a nice catch or whatever. I that's my opinion. I I'm maybe uh overdoing it, uh uh I'm being too uh uh too much uh myself. Uh but that's what I thought. But uh who knew that she was gonna slip through she was gonna accompany the uh artists there when they were singing these uh beautiful, she was snoring. It's a good thing it was loud and nobody heard her. I know because we were right in uh box seats.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

Oh, so you must be a pretty good at uh at um at fixing stuff, because I I usually mine go that bad, it's that's the end of it.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

So oh, fixing stuff, yeah. I fixed it all right. I don't know how she felt. She never did tell me that she didn't like it, but she because she was sleeping most of the time. She slept through the whole opera. Well, did she ever come here you when you were singing later? No, no, no, no. She she may have come. Uh she may have come one or two when I was singing. She may have come, yeah. She may have, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

So how did y'all move on from there?

SPEAKER_01 24:08

Apparently you did something that worked, but she well I mean, uh well, it wasn't it didn't go off very nicely, I can tell you that, because of the fact that uh um uh we weren't uh I was gonna get I gave her a friendship ring and uh my grandma Mona and her name was Mona She didn't like Betty Kit. She wasn't Italian and she was from the South and Grandma Bon Grandma Mona didn't understand her. She had a very nice southern and she said, Giovanni, chefato. She said, What John, what are you doing? So we were at um I was taking her to the Palisades uh driveway, the Palisades uh uh mountains, the Palisades uh parkway, and we were overlooking uh New York Harbor in New York from the Palisades in New Jersey and I'd called Mama. I said, Mom, I think I'm gonna uh marry this girl. No way. No way, oh my god, please. So I took the ring back from her.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

Oh god.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

And she was upset about that. I bet so. Sure, upset. So I I knew that I was doing something wrong because I liked her. And I couldn't be uh coward by grandma on my mother just because she didn't speak Italian. So I just gave it to her back after we went back because I felt compassion for her and sorry that I did such a dastardly act. I was that was mean of me to do that. Especially when she thought everything was in order. Well, did your mother and grandmother they try they they They got over it, they got over it, they do get over it, you know. You you just have to convince them. I mean, they can't they can't run my life forever. They did in Paris, they sent me back. So I mean I learned from that. You can't always uh accommodate people. You sometimes you be have to be on your own and you have to make your own decisions. But I like her father. Her father was uh from uh they were they lived in uh Salisbury, North Carolina. So I I used to travel back and forth when she was uh when we got married to uh Salisbury.

SPEAKER_00 26:47

Really? How'd you like Salisbury? How'd you like North Carolina?

SPEAKER_01 26:50

It was very nice. So um one day in February her sister um Jean was getting married. So I was I just had to finish the shift and we got packed up on we lived on Seventh Avenue in Brooklyn. In Flat in Flatland Flatland. Flatland Flat. I think Flatland Avenue, they're there, so we picked up the car and we started driving to be at uh Jean's uh wedding with Jimmy. So we're driving and driving and then we hit uh a snow started falling when we were the jersey turned time. And I said to Betty Sue, I'm gonna keep going. She said, Well, I think we're gonna go back home. I said, No, we're gonna keep going. So we kept going and going, and it was getting worse and worse, and it was a lot of construction at that time. Oh 95 and 85. So when you go when you go 95, there was so much snow, and uh the w windshield wipers began to ice up, and and I was all very, very, very tired. So I said, here, I'm gonna give you the car, you stay on this road here. Take 85, don't deviate from 85, take right down 85, and we'll be in good shape. I'm gonna close my eyes for about 10 to 15 minutes. So we switched, she took over driving, and when I woke up, ah, where are we? We're on 29. No, we're going to the mountains of Virginia, not into oh, we're going north instead of going west. And I'll never forget that. So it took us 23 hours to get to their house. Yeah, it was raining, snowing so hard.

SPEAKER_00 28:51

23 hours.

SPEAKER_01 28:53

Yeah, we could go on for more, I ran all, but I think you've got enough, right?

SPEAKER_00 28:56

Well, I've got

Moving to Myrtle Beach S.C.

SPEAKER_00 28:57

48 minutes, but I was gonna ask you about how y'all decided to decide to come to Myrtle Beach.

SPEAKER_01 29:02

Well, why how do you think I decided to get to Myrtle Beach? How do you think? Well, I mean, obviously. Tell me, now tell me, tell me.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

You probably retired from whatever your main job was and decided you wanted to come down here.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

No way. My brother was living in Wilmington, North Carolina, and he had a job with D Laurentis, the Hollywood uh studio.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

I've seen your name on some credits before from movies.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

There wasn't mine, it was my brother. My brother did get credits, yeah. So he did a he did a couple. He was so he ran a lot. He ran a lot for De Laurentis. And um so they became very good friends, and he was a c in a couple of movies. Uh he played that old man sitting on the lounge chair at the beach and sleeping. Uh that was him. And he played he had some some more small parts, uh gangster parts and so forth.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

Which movie was that? He was on the vacation.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

I can't remember, I don't remember.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

I mean So he did a lot of extra work.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

Well, he he was there with that very good. So I used to visit him. And uh I visited the lots. I saw they had King Kong there. I saw how they put King Kong together. The World Trade Center King Kong, the one that Yeah, the World 1938 King Kong. That one they had that one there.

SPEAKER_00 30:23

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 30:24

But anyway, he was in charge of them, so he got some of uh the relatives he wanted me to come there and live. I said, no, no, no, no. So she decided with Brian. Brian was let's go and take a trip to uh Myrtle Beach. And so they we went to Myrtle Beach and they were putting up the Renaissance Tower in Surfside. And uh the salesman uh convinced them to take a unit there. I forget how much money it was, but I told them no, don't buy it because you get a lot of hurricanes, you're right on the water. Uh you're gonna lose your money. And they both didn't didn't listen to me naturally. So I didn't pay anything for it. They did. So they gave me the contract, I went over the contract, and uh I went with them, and the the guy that the salesman was going over the contract with them, and I was sitting there kibbitsing, and he turned to my wife, he said, Why'd you take your husband here? He's nitpicking on everything. I said, And she said, Well, that's how he is, he's a nitpicker.

SPEAKER_00 31:37

So save you money though when you nitpick.

SPEAKER_01 31:39

Well, I picked on everything, you know. And sure enough, what they did is they uh went bankrupt and they sold some of the property that they were supposed to put in a a convention center to the Jackson family, which was next door. At Ocean Lakes. Ocean Lakes, Jackson's bought a whole chunk of uh of property there. And I told Betty Sue, you don't know if that's gonna ever be built because that's a that's pretty big. And you you have you you gotta put some proviso. If they don't build it, you can get your money back. Well, okay, wait unless it's sure enough, went bankrupt, Jackson took over, and that's where we lived. Uh on 209, it was Hartman 209 in the Renaissance. Renaissance Towers, by the way. I remember in Search, I think. Yeah. Did you read that?

SPEAKER_00 32:33

No, no, I said I remember I remember the Renaissance Towers, though. Well, I

2000 South Carolina Republican Primary : George W. Bush vs John McCain

SPEAKER_00 32:37

I've been your friend now for over 20 years, I reckon. Oh no, like I was supposed to say 1996 will be 30 years, and you helped with the 96 primary.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

That's right. I was the 96th primary. Who was I for? I think I was for uh George Bush. Yeah, I was for Bush. And um Thad Viers um uh he was right for wait a minute, he was for um McClain. McCain, yeah. That was in 2000. Yeah, McCain, and they all met at uh Shangri-La. At Shamrock's Shamrock, Shamrock, Shamrock, see?

SPEAKER_00 33:12

Shamrocks. I remember that too, because you met me with the I had the uh the ballots in the van, and you and you were giving me a bunch of stack about something, and I was carrying the the the the uh ballots in to get counted because back then the the party actually ran the primary, so we carry the ballots out of the shamrocks.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

Yeah, but I think McCain won in Aurie, didn't he? He did. Yeah, but uh but uh George Bush won in the state.

SPEAKER_00 33:39

And I was on the bush, I was helping Bush, because remember we had the help of the.

SPEAKER_01 33:43

Oh, you're I thought you were helping McCain.

SPEAKER_00 33:45

Th Thad was helping McCain and Tom Heron was helping McCain.

SPEAKER_01 33:48

And and also uh Kelly.

SPEAKER_00 33:50

Well McCain, McKelly was for Bush. Oh, good.

SPEAKER_01 33:53

I didn't I see I don't remember.

SPEAKER_00 33:55

And Kurt was for Bush, Kurt Fredericks, remember Curtis who helped me. I was trying to think of who the um did you say uh Heron was for both? Tom Heron, no, he was for McCain. He was for McCain. Oh, named Jim Madori that was for McCain. And they man, they managed that campaign for for John.

SPEAKER_01 34:11

Jim McDory, I know McDori.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

You remember Jim Jim Madori? He's been gone a long time.

SPEAKER_01 34:15

I don't uh God, because you're talking that was so Mc So uh Heron was for McCain. Yeah, and McCain lost.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

But he lost but he lost, but he won the district. So they won the campaign they were in charge of, but but Bush won the state. Oh, I

Host Randal Wallace previews our next set of shows when we will be joined by Horry County Councilman Cam Crawford

SPEAKER_00 34:34

see. Okay. Join us next time as we talk politics, and we're joined by Ordy County Councilman, Cam Crawford.